[Review] Mamamoo - Gogobebe

Recently, Mamamoo held onto the top spot of Girl Group Power Rankings. With another edition looming after the April battlefields, let's see how they'll do with their first group release of 2019. Hwasa dropped her solo debut "Twit" earlier in the year which concluded the first round of Mamamoo's solo efforts. Now with "Gogobebe" they join the fray ahead of the main month (because April looks like it'll be deadly).

Let's address the elephant in the room immediately: there is way too much English in this song. From the start to finish, there's simply too many English words scattered throughout. Granted, I didn't calculate how much of the song has English, or what percentage of English is in Mamamoo (or any group) songs but it definitely felt overbearing. Even though I may have overestimated exactly how many English words are used, but the problem is magnified when most of the words are not pronounced properly. "Suit" sounds like "shoot," "bling" sounds like "bring," etc. And those words are featured prominently in the chorus.

Even Moonbyul's glorious rap was not free from such dangers. "Look up the here?" That's some classic Kpop English if I've ever seen any. By the way it's really impressive how Moonbyul continues to shine - hell between her parts here, in "Wind Flower," and "Egotistic" she's been the main highlight for three consecutive title tracks. The song does sound plenty fun elsewhere and many of the harmonies (although subtle) are the usual glorious Mamamoo standard. Here is a sentence about the MV. No that was not filler that I forgot about.

In the short span of 2019, Mamamoo was one of the premier comebacks out of all girl groups (Loona being the other). To say that I had anticipation for this comeback would be an understatement. So with the plethora of Engrish and a general uninspired sound I'm pretty disappointed. Mamamoo have such a high ceiling and standard that they would come up short eventually and they chose now. It's not as exciting and fun as "Yes I Am," nor is it expertly crafted like "Wind Flower" or as energetic as "Starry Night." Maybe there's a curse to be put up at the top spot for power rankings...too much expectations?